There are so many emotions you can experience and so many feelings to express. Hopefully, the negative ones are fleeting and the positive ones strengthen and renew you daily. Unfortunately, people will hurt you and do things that will be unfair, causing you to feel anger, frustration and resentment. These feelings may be longstanding and hard to release.
Anger is something most people are familiar with, but the concern is not to let it fester where there is a risk you become bitter. You may be angry, but bitterness is something you carry with you at all times. Bitterness keeps you trapped in the feeling, making it hard to let go. It lingers in your mind and overflows into all aspects of your life. People may regard you as moody and arrogant and want to keep their distance. You, on the other hand, may not even care.
Anger can be healed through forgiveness, but bitterness may be beyond your ability to absolve. While chronic anger is bad enough, chronic bitterness is worse. It can be more destructive, contributing to marital discord and physical distress.
Embittered people are their own worst enemy because they are filled to overflowing with paranoia, cynicism and mistrust. They often believe they are the victim of a profound injustice and they become obsessed with revenge and retribution.
What can you do to prevent it?
1. Recognize if your anger has become so blown out of proportion, that you cannot focus on anything else. Ask yourself if this feeling is worth all the energy you are putting into it. Are you really ready to keep living like this and jeopardizing your own well-being and those close to you?
2. Acknowledge that you may be pitting “yourself” against “them.” This requires a lot of awareness because sometimes you can be very stubborn about whom to blame for your life. The bottom line is that it’s not a contest. No one is keeping track of your pain except you. Therefore, change your attitude and decide if this bitterness is putting your life in a good place or not. Do you get some kind of satisfaction seeing yourself as a victim?
Ultimately, you don’t want to prevent yourself from living life because an insensitive person wronged you. You don’t want to stagnate, and stay stuck in a mindset that causes you to be a bitter and resentful spirit. The difference between a moment of anger and a lifetime of bitterness is the desire to free yourself from the bondage of hurtful hate.The
